Shelter Cats Bask in the Limelight at Feline Art Exhibit in New York

This specially designed feline enclosure at White Columns art space gives kitties plenty of space to play, climb and hide.

“The Cat Show,” at the renowned White Columns alternative art space in New York, is a feline art exhibit that’s 14 years in the making.

It all started in the 1990s when artist Rhonda Lieberman, the show's curator and a self-described “out and proud cat lady,” was living in Long Island City, N.Y., and noticed that the city was riddled with street cats. At dusk, the feral cat colony on her street would turn into a “cat party,” and Lieberman enjoyed feeding and caring for her feline neighbors. But as her neighborhood started redeveloping, the cats were pushed out and had nowhere to go — not even shelters.

“I was really in tune to what happens to homeless cats in the city,” Lieberman told Vetstreet. “Rescues were overextended and overflowing with cats.”

Art, she believed, could help solve this problem.

Lieberman set out to create a space that was more appealing and aesthetic than a cage, so she reached out to artists and designers to help her create a feline habitat that would showcase adoptable rescue cats.

The artists and designers loved the idea, but art galleries in New York were not so excited. None of the galleries she pitched the idea to were willing to host rescue cats.

Internet Cat Videos Pave the Way for Art

After pitching her installation to art spaces for more than a decade, Lieberman finally got a break. In August 2012, the famed Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn., hosted the Internet Cat Video Festival. The event, which featured viral cat videos like fan-favorite Henri 2, Paw de Deux, proved to be wildly popular and gave Lieberman the motivation to pitch her cat art installation to galleries again.

Suddenly, galleries weren’t so apprehensive about hosting cats. White Columns agreed to allow the cats on the premises as long as they could also feature cat-related art.